


Together, Away on the Wind

by NanakiBH



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Birthday, Happy Ending, M/M, Post-Canon, True Love, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 19:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8765365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: December 5th was a day of happiness.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Your Majesty. I look forward to seeing you again.

His gloved fingers cut through the surface of the snow. With a few sweeps of his hand, the writing on the neglected headstone was revealed.

_Lelouch vi Britannia,_ it said.

For the first time, Suzaku was able to look at the carefully engraved letters and smile easily.

When he raised his eyes and looked ahead, things didn't look much different from how they would have in previous years, but he came there with the knowledge that things were different. The painful everyday he lived behind a mask was behind him. Those chains that bound him to an inescapable pain had been released.

Now, there was only the obligation of the living.

To live.

“Hey,” he said, speaking as he would have in the past, when he came there alone. “Wanna hear something sad? I'd only visit this place twice a year. The flowers I brought in September are gone now.” He paused for a second and reminded himself to pick some up later. “I'd sit on my grave and look at yours and I'd talk like this. At this point, it's hard to say whether I ever really thought you were gone. I knew there was no one buried beneath this stone. Part of me was always hoping that when I finished talking, I'd look over my shoulder and you'd be there.”

Like that.

With snowflakes gently falling on his shoulders. And he'd give him that same look; not quite mad, not quite-...

Maybe it was a guilty look.

Maybe that was what he'd always been hoping to see.

If it was enough to make tears gather at the corners of his eyes, then it had to be.

Had he not been afraid of looking ridiculous, he would have gotten up and touched him just to make sure he was there. His skin was almost as pale as the snow. The sight of him felt so fragile, Suzaku was afraid that the cold wind that softly rustled his hair would have been strong enough to carry him away with the snowflakes, removing him like a precious mirage.

He didn't have to move. A pair of footprints made their way toward the grave and stopped in front of him.

Lelouch's fingers delicately touched his cheek as if brushing away the long-dried tears that had been shed for him.

“I'm-”

Suzaku captured his hand and shook his head to stop him before he could say another word. “No. It's alright. Everything was as it should've been. There's no point in apologizing for something you had to do.”

Once, he might have been offended if he heard Lelouch apologize. They'd both made an agreement, no matter what happened. That was their decision, so they had to remain dedicated to it. He was sure that Lelouch understood that more than anyone, but... Suzaku was a little happy to see that guilt-stricken look on his face.

He'd gotten better at knowing himself. He wouldn't have told Lelouch what it was like to visit his grave if he hadn't been looking for sympathy.

The past was the past and the future was theirs. They'd toyed with the world enough, they thought, but the world was also reluctant to let them go. As if it were begging them to stay, they remained despite everything. The only way to honor such a destiny was to keep watching, observing, to make sure that the world continued to turn in the right direction.

“Once upon a time, I wanted to die.” Really, Suzaku couldn't help but laugh. Pathetic as it made him feel to acknowledge his weakness, it sounded silly to his present self who wanted nothing more than to keep living. “Sounds like a crappy fairytale, doesn't it? I think it had a happy ending, though.”

He couldn't keep the smile off his face as he looked at Lelouch, as he stroked his thumb over the back of Lelouch's hand.

Lelouch shivered slightly. He pulled his hand away but chose to sit down next to him in the snow. He stole a glance back at the writing on his grave, then let out a wary-sounding laugh of his own. “You're strange, smiling about something so morbid. That's bad taste, you know? That fairytale of yours better not have a sequel. I'm already satisfied with the way it ended.”

For a moment, Suzaku's breath got caught in his throat and he couldn't find the words to respond with. Seeing the sad twist in Lelouch's brow made his heart stand still with a sense of guilt he hadn't been able to express to him in the past. The opportunity was there, but the moment didn't feel right, so he let it go, exhaling it along with the breath he'd been holding.

Suzaku realized that he'd distracted himself when he heard Lelouch's laugh. He turned to look at him and found him with his eyes gazing upward, following the dispersing cloud of his breath. Lelouch tried it himself, rubbing his hands together, breathing a warm cloud into them. His childish smile was nostalgic.

“What are we still doing here?” Lelouch asked. He put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up, then patted the snow off his clothes. “We should go back. I bet Nunnally would like to see the snow.”

“She's a young lady now, you know,” Suzaku tried to remind him.

The look he received was something of a glare. “And? I don't care if she continues to age without me. She's always going to be my little sister. You think she wouldn't still appreciate it if we took her out to see the snow?”

He really was the same Lelouch.

“I guess some things don't change. You'll always be the type of big brother who's always thinking about his little sister, won't you?”

Lelouch lifted his chest proudly. “Of course.”

And that was good. Whether as a friend, a terrorist, an emperor, or as something beyond human understanding, Lelouch maintained that part of him that made him recognizable. Some change was bound to happen, especially over the many years Lelouch would see, but Suzaku prayed that he would always be able to look at him and see the smile that reminded him of the summer days they spent together as children.

He just wished that he could articulate that feeling; his happiness, gratitude, and relief. It was all rolled up into a feeling that was more than could be spoken.

So he reached out and grasped his hand again. He was within his reach, after all.

“What's that look about?” Lelouch asked, making an amused and curious face.

Suzaku just dismissed it with a shake of his head. Lelouch's fingers tightened around his hand and he gave him a little tug, helping him back to his feet. Once he was up, Suzaku looked back, glancing at where his own grave was, buried somewhere under the snow. The only thing laying beneath the layers of white was the part of him he'd discarded; all of his stubborn resentment. He felt lighter without it.

Those feelings best remained as memories. They never helped him protect what was important to him.

But Lelouch continued to look at his own grave with a faraway gaze.

The snow fell, silently filling in the recesses of each letter of his name.

“I think... it would be best if I let this remain here,” he said, “even if I'm not gone.”

“You sure?” Suzaku asked. “It's not too morbid in your opinion? I thought that you would have wanted to remov-”

“No. A grave exists for the sake of remembering. The desire to be remembered isn't exclusive to the dead. Even if I'm the only one who will do the remembering...”

Suzaku hadn't forgotten that he was still holding Lelouch's hand. He squeezed it tightly, making him look at him. “I will always remember that name and who it belongs to,” he promised. “I won't forget... Because that person is very important to me. I'll always stand one step behind you. I swear it upon my name as Kururugi Suzaku.”

For a second that felt too long, Lelouch didn't move, didn't say anything, but then the smile that had vanished from his face made a brilliant return. As the wind picked up, he moved as if letting it carry him forward into Suzaku's arms. His voice, close to his ear, sounded like a living dream. “Thank you, Suzaku. I'll keep yours close to my heart as well. Forever.”

Despite the cold, they stayed that way for a little longer, content in a moment of peaceful silence. Destiny would, at some point, probably find a way to tear them apart from each other again, but, at that moment, holding the tangible warmth of Lelouch in his arms – a warmth he once feared had faded forever – Suzaku felt certain that they would always find their way back to each other.

Surely, the world needed him.

But Suzaku's world needed him more than any other.


End file.
